1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention described herein pertain to the field of robots. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, one or more embodiments of the invention enable an autonomous personal service robot to monitor and attend to people such as the elderly or disabled and report their status and the status of their living environments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Virtually everyone wants to enjoy the highest possible quality of life. Increasing household conveniences is one method to improve home life for many people. For others, such as the elderly, simply being able to live independently in their own homes is their desire.
Refrigerators, washing machines, dish washers and micro-wave ovens represent a small fraction of the convenience appliances in many homes. Yet, there remain many tasks to automate such as: fetching the newspaper; getting a drink from the refrigerator; or locating the missing telephone receiver or television remote control. While these and many other similar tasks seem mundane, none-the-less, many people would enjoy a personal attendant or butler that provides these services.
Most people want to be able to choose where and how they live. However, as people age, they often lose this choice and are forced to live in assisted care or nursing homes. The ability to live independently in comfortable surroundings is important both because it improves the mental wellbeing of the individual and because of the high cost of care. This prized independence is often only grudging relinquished as health concerns, diminished capacity and the fear being unable to respond to crisis forces individuals to accept increasingly higher levels of living assistance. As well as financial strain, reduced confidence and unhappiness often accompanies this decreased independence.
Many people who can handle the day-to-day activities of living alone are forced into assisted living or nursing homes because they cannot handle emergencies. The person can cook, clean, etc. but might not be able to get up if they fall in the middle of a room. Other people need to be monitored for different medical conditions. These people are robbed of their independence because of what might happen. This problem is exacerbated by today's demographics where the aging live far from relatives, including their children, so daily monitoring is either expensive or not available.
Emergency stations and “Medical Alarms” integrated into necklaces connected to monitoring service providers exist, but are not overwhelmingly received. Two problems are that the products can be invasive, and that they are only useful in some conditions. A push button alarm does not work if their owner loses consciousness, and a motion sensor might give false readings if the owner is napping.
Currently, nurses and other caregivers monitor some elderly in their homes. The cost of nursing care is high, and rising, while the supply will soon experience a shortage. Automating tasks such as medicine dispensing and compliance monitoring, dementia testing, and monitoring for falls and other emergency conditions decrease the tasks for which caregivers are required, but such solutions do not currently exist.
For at least the limitations described above there is a need for system that provides the functions of an autonomous personal robot that enables the disabled or elderly to remain independent as long as possible while providing automated twenty-four hour support that will improve the quality of life while significantly decreasing costs.